Samantha at the World's Fair eBook

“But this great new open Book of Revelations,
full of God’s power and grace, and the wonderful
story of what He has done for us sence He wakened
the soul of His servant, Columbus, and sent him over
the troubled ocean to carry His name into the wilderness,
and the strength and the might He has given to us
sence as a nation—­

“This great object lesson, full of the sperit
of prophecy and accomplishment, won’t be here
but a few short months.

“And I believe if there could be another chapter
added to the Bible this week, and we could have the
Lord’s will writ out concernin’ it, I
believe it would read—­

“’Go to that Fair. Study its wonderful
lessons with awe and reverence. Go week days
if you can, and if you can’t, go Sundays.
And you rich people, who have art galleries of your
own to wander through Sundays, and gardens and greenhouses
full of beauty and sweetness, and the means to seek
out loveliness through the world, and who don’t
need the soul refreshment these things give—­don’t
you by any Pharisaical law deprive my poor of their
part in the feast I have spread for both rich and
poor.’”

Sez Miss Cork, “I wouldn’t dast to talk
in that way, Arville. To add or diminish one
word of skripter is to bring an awful penalty.”

“I hain’t a-goin’ to add or diminish,”
says Arville. “I hain’t thought on’t.
I am merely statin’ what, in my opinion, would
be the Lord’s will on the subject.”

But right here the schoolmaster struck in. He
is a very likely young man—­smart as a whip,
and does well by the school, and makes a stiddy practice
of mindin’ his own business and behavin’.

He is a great favorite and quite good-lookin’,
and some say that he and Lophemia Pegrum are engaged;
but it hain’t known for certain.

He spoke up, and sez he, “There is one great
thing to think of when we talk on this matter.
There is so much to be said on both sides of this
subject that it is almost impossible to shut your eyes
to the advantages and the disadvantages on both sides.

“But,” sez he, “if this nation closes
the Fair Sundays, it will be a great object lesson
to the youth of this nation and the world at large
of the sanctity and regard we have for our Puritan
Sabbath—­

“Of our determination to not have it turned
into a day of amusement, as it is in some European
countries.

“It would be something like painting up the
Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer in gold
letters on the blue sky above, so that all who run
may read, of the regard we have for the day of rest
that God appointed. The regard we have for things
spiritual, onseen—­our conflicts and victories
for conscience’ sake—­the priceless
heritage for which our Pilgrim Fathers braved the
onknown sea and wilderness, and our forefathers fought
and bled for.”